July 25, 2012–A 6.4 Magnitude Earthquake Struck Near Sumatra, Indonesia: The quake (which was downgraded from 6.6) struck at 12:27AM (July 25th) at the epicenter. It was 8:27PM in New York (July 24th), 7:27PM in Chicago, 6:27PM in Denver and 5:27PM in Los Angeles. The tremor occurred at a depth of 45 kilometers (28 miles). According to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) ”THERE IS A VERY SMALL POSSIBILITY OF A LOCAL TSUNAMI THAT COULD AFFECT COASTS LOCATED USUALLY NO MORE THAN A HUNDRED KILOMETERS (62 miles) FROM THE EARTHQUAKE EPICENTER. AUTHORITIES IN THE REGION NEAR THE EPICENTER SHOULD BE MADE AWARE OF THIS POSSIBILITY.” The location of the quake was 181 miles WSW of Medan, Sumatra, Indonesia; 192 miles WNW of Sibolga, 205 miles SSE of Banda Aceh (see map) and 382 miles west of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Today’s earthquake occurred very near the mega-quake and tsunami of Dec. 26 2004, off the west coast of Northern Sumatra. That disaster killed 227,898 world-wide and was rated at 9.1 magnitude. It was the third largest earthquake in the world since 1900 and was the largest since the 1964 Prince William Sound, Alaska earthquake. In total, 227,898 people were killed or were missing and presumed dead and about 1.7 million people were displaced by the earthquake and subsequent tsunami in 14 countries in South Asia and East Africa. (In January 2005, the death toll was 286,000. In April 2005, Indonesia reduced its estimate for the number missing by over 50,000.) The earthquake was felt at Banda Aceh, Meulaboh and at Medan, Sumatra and in parts of Bangladesh, India, Malaysia, Maldives, Myanmar, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Thailand. The tsunami caused more casualties than any other in recorded history and was recorded nearly world-wide on tide gauges in the Indian, Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. Seiches were observed in India and the United States. Subsidence and landslides were observed in Sumatra. A mud volcano near Baratang, Andaman Islands became active on December 28 and gas emissions were reported in Arakan, Myanmar.